As Gottfrid Svartholm tries to have a hacking conviction against him overturned, the Court of Appeal has been hearing evidence from hacker Jacob Appelbaum. Appearing on behalf of the defense, the former Wikileaks spokesman criticized the police investigation carried out on Gottfrid's computer arguing that the hacking could have easily been carried out by a third party.

In May 2013, Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm stood trial for alleged hacking offenses carried out against Logica, a Swedish IT company working with local tax authorities, and local bank Nordea.

Following a two-week trial, the Nacka District Court handed down its verdict in June. Gottfrid was found guilty of hacking, aggravated fraud and attempted aggravated fraud, and was given a two-year jail sentence.

In July it was revealed that appeals had been filed by both the defense and prosecution – one hoping to have the sentence quashed and the other hoping for even more jail time.

During the hearing this week at the Court of Appeal, Tor developer and former Wikileaks spokesman Jacob Appelbaum gave evidence on a key part of the defense’s case, that Gottfrid’s computer was controlled by a third-party who also carried out the hack attacks.

According to IDG, Appelbaum heavily criticized the conclusions drawn by the police following the investigation carried out on Gottfrid’s computers.

Police and prosecutors had come to the conclusion that were no traces left behind on Gottfrid’s computers at the times and dates when the hacks against Logica and Nordea were carried out. But Appelbaum said that the police should have looked at a wider range of applications that could have been compromised.

The hacker, a well-respected security expert, said that not only could control of the computer have been carried out using Python and Neko, but it would have been trivial to hide any traces of that.

“It’s so simple that there are blog posts showing how to do it,” he said.

However, the issue for the Court of Appeal is not really if it is possible to hack a computer, hack an IT company and a bank, and then leave no traces. The Court has to consider how likely it is that those sequence of events actually occurred.

For his part, Gottfrid says that the attack did take place but it was carried out by one or more of his friends.

Whether the Court believes this version of events will become known in two weeks when its decision is handed down.